A bumper guide or bumper pole is the part of your bumper that keeps it from bumping into surfaces in the dark.
While a bumper is a safeguard in and of itself against your bumping hard into other vehicles and persons, the bumper guide is further protection for it to keep it from needlessly crumpling up or getting dents from things like concrete posts, trees, or shopping carts.
It's literally a pole that looks like a car antenna that allows the driver to estimate how far in front the bumper is and how near another object or person is to it, increasing the accuracy of your depth perception in a way.
Shopping Tips to Remember
- What to Expect from Bumper Guides: Even though your vehicle is equipped with turn signals, fog lights, and headlights galore, the bumper guide can guide your bumper from getting needlessly dented or scratched. It's amazing how it can do that looking like non-functioning antennas or plastic flagpoles. Nevertheless, they can help you maneuver your bumper across tight parking spaces, narrow driveways, and shady garage areas.
- What Are These Guides Made Of? These bumper guides are made of various materials ranging from amber plastic to chrome caps to stainless steel or some combination of all these. Their design also tend to vary, which means you can customize them for your car, truck, van or SUV like rims on a low rider. You can buy a guide that's shaped like the log of the car you're driving or a statue of an angel. Or they can be as simple as possible, looking like protruding bunny-ear antennas. Some are glow-in-the-dark or come with LEDs to light up dark areas.
- The Make and Model Aren't as Important to Know: These guides, especially the plastic ones, are easy to break but perfectly replaceable. Therefore, getting one that's specific to your make and model of vehicle isn't as important compared to acquiring a brake caliper bolt, overrun cutoff valve, or oxygen gasket. It's a prevalent accessory that's considered an extra for many a vehicle since many motorists don't bother with these guides at all. They'd rather train their eyes with depth perception to keep their bumpers pristine.
- They're Made to Break and They're Super Affordable: You can get a bumper guide for as expensive as $200 or as cheap as $10. The high-end ones last longer and can take more damage against the elements while the cheaper ones break easily but you can have multiple spares for them available for easily installation in case of damage. Just watch out for the shipping rates in certain sites, they can raise the prices of these bumper guides significantly. In case you're outside areas with cheap or free shipping, just look for these inexpensive guides at your local brick-and-mortar car accessories shop.